Reloading .308 with match and game bullets

[KyleHines2005]

Just finished 10 rounds of my first reloads. Kept the OAL @ 2.800. Some were thousandths ahead and behind. For some reason. I had to back the seating depth out a hair. The first round I chambered and it knocked it down some, but all the others stayed at 2.800. I loaded .308 with Lapua brass, CCI #200 primers, Sierra 175gr. HPMK and 42gr. IMR 4064. Hopefully I'll have eyes after the range trip. Haha. But 42.0 is the base charge as stated by lee and IMR reloading data.

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[Nevada Ed]

your oal can be off .001-2 with the jhp with a different amount of pressure on the loading handle down to a high primer.......
no big deal.
Even larger differences in oal's will be found with lead tip bullets......they are not all made the same.

You will be fine......
Hope you can get a group under 1".........
5 @ .48 would be super ........... but then what would you do?

 

[KyleHines2005]

Well none are exceeding 2.803, but a couple are 2.7 or higher. I'll have to go get measurements to make it official, but why would my die seat adjustment seat one at 2.800" then the next just a hundredth above and another at a couple hundredth below? I've decided to back my stem out a hair after every round and seat them all exactly 2.800.


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[WR Moore]

Your OAL is going to vary somewhat because your seating die engages the bullet on the ogive, not the tip. There will be some slight variation in bullet OAL, but the ogive will be uniform.

I doubt you'll ever be able to seat bullets to approach the lands on a typical factory .308 due to SAAMI conventions. Pick a length to work through the magazine.

If you need to reset dies to seat the two different bullets, look into either an extra seating die so you can dedicate dies or something like the Forster Ultra Match seater with the micrometer adjustment. You can dial your seating depth to your needs.

For your match grade loads, I'd also suggest you pick up a Lyman M die to uniform your case necks. Used after sizing, this will help produce a more uniform neck tension on your bullet.